4

The words of the third master were melodious and they filled the hall with music.

Out of the words flowed notes of perfect resolution, sonatas of joy, limpid moments between delightful chords, the laughter of a happy child, the serenity of light rain at midnight, a city at peace with its greatness, unheard notes on the musical scale, bird-calls at dawn, glittering ideas in sound, the vision of beautiful things flowering from great suffering, the hint of a grand and majestic aria flowing across the faces of the mountaintops and at rest on the gentle bed of the oceans, a song spiralling towards an unseen silver sphere, a praise of invisible things that are irresistible and supreme for being invisible, the blissful realm of the purest dreams, a tower of light, a river of sweet melodies, a calling forth of hidden things, the tranquillity that has gone beyond life and death, a white stairway climbing into the heavens, and the humour of those who are at home with their destiny.

All of this, and more, flowed out of the hidden music of the third master’s words and out of the melody of his voice. And, as the third master spoke on, the hall was suddenly abolished, its walls rendered invisible, and the new space was radiant with the appearance of a summoned being, the tender presence of the great mother, protectress of the island and its secret ways.

The swirling energies of this being were everywhere, making the spaces alive with something akin to the electrification of the spirit, and a mighty collective hum of praise burst forth from the congregation of the illuminators. The hall now seemed to have lifted off into the air, and the city seemed in flight. Such a splendid weightlessness pervaded everything, and all those in the great hall seemed to be afloat on a silver cloud, spiralling into the soaring sublimity of the great mother.

It wasn’t long before he felt that something about him had changed forever in that celestial mood. He felt that he had become smaller and therefore greater, that he had become hidden and therefore could learn to see, that he had become a secret and therefore open to all truths, that he had become his own mystery and therefore could begin to understand, and that he had been touched by the creative spirit of finding and therefore could begin his true quest.

And while still afloat in that heavenly mood, he became aware that something had changed around him too. He noticed the deep blue silence and realised that the third master had finished.

The silence was the applause, the highest applause, that the congregation of the Invisibles could have given to one of their most venerable illuminators.